Luke 6:46-49 - Building on the Right Foundation

In these final verses of Luke 6, Jesus concludes His message to the newly called disciples and the multitude.  He has been speaking on what it really means to be a true disciple, a genuine follower of His. You can and will be blessed or happy despite your circumstances (vv.20-26), and despite how people treat you (vv. 27-38). This will take place because you are like your Teacher, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it will be evident by the good fruit you will bear you in your life (vv. 39-45).   The Lord now makes it very clear that it is not enough to merely hear His Word and call Him “Lord”. We must also obey what He commands us to do. In Matthew 7:21-23, you find an additional warning Jesus gives at this point in His message. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'”   Not everybody who professes to know the Lord has had a real experience of salvation. They may have been active in church and other religious organizations, but if they are not saved by faith, they have no foundation to their lives. They have built their religious experience on what they have done and accomplished that surely impressed everyone around them but did not impress God. And when they stand before God one day, they will hear these terrible words, “I never knew you; depart from me!”   Jesus is first addressing those who have a “confessed faith” in verse 46. “But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?” We must have a belief that behaves! There are many who are quite willing to own Jesus as King, as long as they can run their own affairs and make all of the decisions. They say, "Lord, Lord," but then they proceed to please themselves. The Lord will have none of it.   Next Jesus speaks of the triumph of a “correct faith” in verses 47-48. “Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.” All of us are builders and we must be careful to build wisely. To "build on the rock" simply means to obey what God commands in His Word. It means that we “dug deep” into God’s Word and found Jesus! “For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).   Finally, Jesus speaks of the tragedy of a “counterfeit faith”: “But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell. And the ruin of that house was great." In both cases, there was a readiness to hear. The difference lay in what they did in response to what they heard. The person who listens to the Lord and is content with simply giving intellectual assent to the truth is on dangerous ground. He is building for eternity on shifting sand. The person who takes the Lord's words to heart and acts upon them, however, is on the solid rock. Happy is he!   From this chapter we learn that we can do the important and impossible tasks of being a genuine follower of Jesus by faith in Him alone. When we are abiding in Him, we will bear the fruit of Christ-like life! It will not be a burden to be obedient because His Holy Spirit will produce the fruit of love, joy, kindness, gentleness and faith. Fruit does not have to work at being fruit! It simply abides in the vine.   My friend, are you building your life on the foundation of Jesus Christ and abiding in Him today?   God bless!